Davis are big on connection — whether they’re meeting someone in real life, delivering a performance onstage, or meeting over Zoom.
The collaborators first met in the early aughts, when Davis was acting in "Passing Strange" and Miranda was performing in "In the Heights," which he also wrote music and lyrics for. "We both did those journeys from Off-Broadway to Broadway around the same time," Miranda tells GRAMMY.com.
Their creative connection came quickly, he continues. "We were fans of each other's shows. Our casts were all friends, so we hung in New York playwright circles, the group of playwrights who were just like trying to make stuff for people of color as much as possible."
Their knack for warm and engaging storytelling, as well as refusal to sacrifice play for space, quickly turned them into unavoidably dynamic artists. It’s not difficult to understand why they’ve earned a shelf-load of awards and shaped popular culture through their TV writing, songwriting, and performances on screen and stage. Miranda and Davis' collective energy translates into Warriors, their concept album inspired by the 1979 film The Warriors, out Oct. 18.
Executive producer Nas and GRAMMY-winning producer Mike Elizondo assemble synths, evocative dembow, and soulful beats that bleed into the New York City streets. Suddenly, tracks veer into rock and punk territory, and these transitions come as a static shock, the equivalent of shuffling across the floor in warm socks and touching a doorknob.
In discussion with GRAMMY.com, Miranda is vivacious and curious, speaking at a rapid clip, pausing for Davis to chime in or laugh as though he’s filing away an idea to solve or a surprise to share with listeners later. Davis has the intellect and energy of someone approaching an apex of inspiration, gushing about her and Miranda’s shared musical influences as passionately as she does her New York City woes.
The pair delve into writing Warriors, their long-standing friendship, their collaborative practice, and, of course, the city that shaped them into the artists they are today.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What were your initial conversations like about what would become Warriors?
Lin-Manuel Miranda: We've been friends for a long time, and when my brain let me know that this Warriors movie that you saw when you were four is taking up outsized real estate, and you really should finally get around to adapting it, and maybe there's a way to do it. Eisa was my first and only call.
Eisa Davis: We have an aesthetic kinship. You hear it in all of Lin's work. It's stuff that I've tried to do in my work, which is to bring in this kind of hybridity of genre, bring in things that you wouldn't expect, whether it's like a kind of musical way.
I wrote a play called "Angela's Mixtape," which is a memoir, back in 2009, and the idea was to make sure that we had a narrative that proceeded like a mixtape.
Miranda: That’s [structure] all she thinks about!
Davis: The conversation for this album has been building up in this subterranean way over these many years, and then we actually got to do this together — create a work that we both really feel strongly about.
What does the collaborative process look like for you?
Miranda: It's been in stages. I think the first year was, "What could this be?" [Editor's note: They've been working on Warriors for three years.] What was great was that we came from opposite sides when it came to the work itself. She had never seen the film but knew of the film's many hip-hop and cultural references. I have seen the film more than any other, so I already like the innovation to the structure she was bringing.
We made each other a lot of playlists. When we did the first listening party of our demos, I remember feeling really proud. [Those songs] were like everything from '70s funk acts and metal bands like Death, to more contemporary artists. I put some Lil Wayne stuff and some The Strokes on there, so we were trading musical sort of color swatches until we were writing the same thing.
Davis: We got our genre and chased our vibes that way. I would free-write all of this character stuff and pass that over to Lin, and Lin would have all of these lyrical ideas again [that] had been just rambling around in his head. Then, we would go back and forth until it felt like it was indeed what we wanted to accomplish for these characters. I'd send him little voice memos with baselines on them or say, "Oh, here's a hook idea. Can we try that?"
It was this fantastic back and forth with us being open to whatever the other person was thinking and see if that works, and we'll use it. And if it doesn't, we'll just toss it and keep moving.
Lauryn Hill and Marc Anthony are some of the luminaries featured in Warriors. But how did you choose the newer talents or those less known to listeners outside New York’s Theater District to highlight?
Miranda: We called all our friends to demo The Warriors, but we were already subconsciously casting the crew. I always knew Cowgirl was going to be Sasha Hutchings. We've been through "Hamilton" together as very close friends, and I knew that that chaotic energy was just right for Cowgirl.
Our friends recorded our demos before we even had many instruments on it. Eisa and I looked at each other like they were the ones. "What f—ing pop star is gonna do better than what is happening in front of us?"
Davis: They should all be pop stars, and that's what we get to do! If you hear what it is that they're able to accomplish on this record, what it is that they can do as actors, what it is that they're doing vocally, you're just kind of like, Yeah, they should be on the top of the Billboard charts.
Miranda: The writing took us down a journey of discovery. Eisa felt very strongly that our DJ, which Lynn Thigpen plays in the movie, should be Jamaican, to give a nod to the Jamaican roots of hip-hop. I loved that idea. That brought us into the world of Shenseea and made us fall in love with Shenseea’s music. Then we were like, "Well, can we get her?" Because she's such a superstar within her genre. It's been fun in both ways, like the people we know, who we knew could deliver on this album, and those we didn't even know existed before we started writing it
Including someone like Emmy winner and Academy Award nominee Colman Domingo — who isn’t just an extraordinary actor but an acclaimed playwright and director — feels like a statement. Did you write his songs with him in mind?
Davis: He was in "Passing Strange" with me. He’s like a brother to me. He’s my family.
Miranda: That’s the homie.
Davis: We actually weren't thinking of him. But then suddenly, the idea occurred to us: we have a great person, too, and we've been working with Riggs [Morales] [Executive Vice President, A&R at Def Jam Recordings]. In some ways, it was almost like Colman was already under our noses, and then Riggs was like, "What about this Colman dude?" We're like, "Oh my gosh, he's perfect!" This will be exciting for all the Colman fans because he is here, rapping on wax for the first time.
Miranda: Theater fans know Colman from "Passing Strange" and "The Scottsboro Boys." He's got theater chops.
What's wonderful is the rest of the world has caught on and finally discovered his brilliance!
Miranda: That’s how I feel about every artist on this album.
Davis: There’s Joshua Henry.
Miranda: He’s been in every show I’ve ever written. I even recorded his voice for one of the songs in "Bring It On [The Musical]."
Davis: Again, this is someone known here in New York, and he does all of his own music on tours around the country and the world. But now, when people hear his vocals, they will say, "Okay, yes, is it like that? It's like that."
"Derailed" and "Luther Interlude" show some punk and rock influences. Briefly describe the genesis of integrating them into the album.
Miranda: When you go watch The Warriors, this Walter Hill classic this album is based on, it’s a rock score. Rock and synths and a very innovative soundtrack for its time. We also knew we were doing a love letter to the concept albums of the '70s: Jesus Christ Superstar, Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway [The Who’s] Tommy, so we knew there'd be a rock element because that's that part of what's going on in that time period.
Our thesis statement for getting to journey all the way through New York, from Coney Island to the Bronx and back, is we get to play in every musical subculture happening in New York then. You have an ode to the queer subculture that's coming up at that time with [characters] The Hurricanes at 96th Street. I changed the Turnbull ACs from a group of skinheads on a school bus to the greatest Fania song I could possibly write; Fania was revolutionizing salsa, so that’s an opportunity to play in that sandbox. We really used New York as a terrain and a playground for us to play with all of the many New Yorks encapsulated in New York in the late '70s, not just the ones in [the original] movie.
Davis: When you were talking about metal and wondering about Luther [sung by Kim Dracula], I was just like, "How can we get at this villainy in this really exciting, unexpected way, musically?" So I was like, "Lin, why don't you listen to this band that had someone that I know as an actress, Jessica Pimentel?" She had a band called Alekhine's Gun, and I was just like, "Maybe Luther is in this sound."
Miranda: She played the track, and I could feel my abuelas in heaven crossing themselves on my behalf, being like, "Oh my God." And I was like, "This is exactly the energy, this dark but virtuosic energy."
Were there specific lyrics that blew the other away?
Miranda: First and foremost, it's a love letter to the movie, so if you love this movie, your favorite quote will be there. And it's either a lyric or, in some cases, where I couldn't imagine adding music to it. Writing Mercy's song was surprising to me because Mercy is one of my favorite movie characters. Full stop. I love that she is the only woman on that block, but her gang seems f—ing terrified of her. She just has so much power. Even in the movie, she has so much power and writing that her kind of aria, when we first meet her, the whole sound and everything about it, surprised me.
Davis: I think we were surprised by pretty much everything that wasn't something that we lifted directly from the film. Every time we would sit down and go through the song, you're discovering how to actually depict this silent scene in the film. So that was a surprise to see. "Okay, we're going to find a narrator." The DJ ends up being our narrator. So again, as we were going, everything was a surprise.
Miranda: The surprise is the point. We're the first audience, and when we surprise ourselves, it's good enough.
This album is an amalgamation of sounds from New York City. What about this city is most magical to you?
Miranda: I'm so crazy about not just the city's diversity, but the economic diversity of this city. There's too many of us to be here, but we figure it out, and we take care of each other. I really feel that in our city and the best and the worst of times.
I keep finding New Yorks to write. I started in my neighborhood in "In The Heights." I found two centuries underneath that for "Hamilton." However, I was still writing about the same spots, like Burr lived on 162nd Street [in Washington Heights], and Hamilton lived on 145th Street. Then, with this [concept album], we get to go to 1979 and just play in all these different neighborhoods. Every time I turn a corner, I'm inspired here.
Davis: The metaphor is that you can be totally unarmed, just like faced with the armies of the night, and still survive. That is New York in a nutshell. What is so magical about this place is that it is so difficult in so many ways to be here. You're just crushed up against each other. There's just no space. Everything stinks.
Miranda: [Laughs.] Transferring from the A to the N/R [train line]!
Davis: But the thing is, we all come here together because of each other, like we all are in New York because of the people who are there, and that's what's magical about it. It comes through in our writing.